Take action now! Email your Foreign Ministry and Permanent Mission in New York

At the 12th Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWG) session in April 2022, Argentina made a proposal to establish an informal cross-regional core group and invited Member States committed to advancing the protection of the human rights of older people to join this group. The core group’s task was to develop a draft decision between the OEWG 12th and 13th sessions for the OEWG to consider at the 13th session in 2023.  The draft decision would be developed through informal consultations with the OEWG entire membership through 2022. It would propose a way forward between the 13th and 14th sessions for intersessional work to prepare and present a draft text determining the main gaps in the international human rights system for older persons, which would be the basis for the further negotiations of instruments and measures to close these gaps, by the Member States and Observers in the OEWG. The core group committed to working in collaboration with relevant stakeholders such as civil society organizations, National Human Rights Institutions, the Independent Expert on the Full Enjoyment of Human Rights by Older Persons, and UN agencies. If the draft decision is not adopted by consensus at the 13th OEWG session then it is expected that there will be a vote.

The draft decision was shared with Member States last week. The core group did not deliver on its commitment on collaboration or consultation with civil society organizations between the 12th and 13th OEWG sessions. The draft decision is mainly procedural in its content and seeks to find a way forward for work during the intersessional period to enable the OEWG to fulfil its mandate. In order to support moving forward and further intersessional work by the OEWG, we call on governments to adopt the draft decision and will continue to insist on the full and meaningful participation of older people and civil society in these processes. We have prepared template emails for members to use to contact your national Foreign Ministry and your government’s permanent missions to the UN in New York to raise their awareness of the upcoming 13th OEWG session and urge them to support the draft decision.

Please use these template emails to follow-up urgently with your government contacts this week: